Current third generation partnership project (3GPP) specifications only allow reporting of load-related parameters on a per cell basis, i.e., a given cell is able to request its neighbor cell's load parameters and get periodic load reports when both cells are configured by the same mobile network operator. This allows mechanisms for load distribution and balancing to work on a per cell basis. However, multiple partners (mobile operators) could share resources within a cell. For example Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) can “lease” a portion of the resources in a cell and in nearby cells. In these scenarios, current wireless architectures do not allow reporting of cell resource utilization at the per-operator level, but rather, resource utilization reports are made on a per cell basis. This prevents load distribution and balancing to work correctly in the presence of sharing operators.
For example, if Long Term Evolution (LTE) is considered, the signaling that allows different evolved node B (eNB) base stations to exchange cell related resource utilization information consists of the messages shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a load information message and FIG. 2 is a resource status update message. As can be seen in these two figures, the cell identification (CID) is present so that information reported by one eNB to another eNB over the X2 interface are provided on a per cell basis. This means, for example, that a load on cells due to user equipment (UE) associated with one particular operator, as opposed to another operator, cannot be reported on a per-operator basis with the current messaging. Other procedures in LTE networks and similar procedures in other different radio access technologies (RAT), such as overload start and overload stop, and the inter-RAT radio access network (RAN) information management (RIM) based cell load report, suffer the same drawbacks.
Thus, resource management within a RAN does not differentiate between different parties sharing the same RAN. For example, functions for load balancing have been standardized to allow resource optimization between cells, but not among operators within cells or between cells. Thus, the 3GPP standards do not specify how to signal within a RAN, or between RAN nodes, information that can aid in deducing load, resource utilization, available capacity or an overload event with a granularity that exceeds the per-cell level. A per-cell granularity is insufficient when control of resources, load and available capacity need to be maintained on a per-sharing-operator basis. For example, without per-sharing operator load reporting, proper mechanisms for load balancing in RAN sharing scenarios cannot be achieved.